


Saltwater and blazing sands

by TheTrueKingofEire



Category: Metro 2033 & Related Fandoms, Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: Crossover, Fluff and Angst, Jade Mountain Academy (Wings of Fire), M/M, Past Violence, i just like dragons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 16:35:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30142431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTrueKingofEire/pseuds/TheTrueKingofEire
Summary: Pavel, a sandwing with a rather small stature, is enrolled into the Jade Mountain academy, escaping from a rough childhood in the desert. There he meets a group of dragons that become his winglet, and a specific seawing caught his eyes.[Will continue adding tags as story progresses.]
Relationships: Artyom/Pavel Morozov
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Saltwater and blazing sands

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ThatForestPrince](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatForestPrince/gifts).



> Honestly I could replace Pavel and Artyom with OCs and it'd be exactly the same but fuck it my AU also ignore my biology nerd jumping out.

Pavel decided he hated the rain.  
It had been pouring almost nonstop ever since he'd left the desert and while it had been a novelty when it was just a light shower, it was now incredibly awful. His scales felt slippery and the drops pelted his wings, not to mention the fact that he couldn't see where he was going. He'd been caught up in a few sandstorms, sure, but that kind of blindness was… different.  
He almost crashed into the mountain rather than landing smoothly in a cave, shivering and flapping his wings to rid them of water. "Awful weather…" he muttered, tucking his tail in as he saw a group of dragonets pass him, a little self conscious about the way he landed still, and made his way towards a nightwing who seemed to be part of the dragons running this place, judging by the scroll in their hands. 

On his way towards the dragon, he looked around at the large cavern, the huge space was teeming with dragons that he hadn't noticed earlier, most of them bigger than him, he noted with a stab of jealousy. "Excuse me," he asked, surprised that his voice came out rather steady, "I'm supposed to have a cave assigned, do you know where it might be?"  
"Of course! Let me see… sandwing… what's your name?" She asked, and he mumbled in reply, "Pavel."  
"Oh of course," if she were bothered by the strangeness of his name, she didn't show it, "your cave is just down that corridor, to the right and then on your 3rd left. Check the map if you're unsure." She lifted a talon to point to an intricate map on the wall of the cave system throughout the mountain. He saw some places marked on there such as classrooms, the main hall, the prey center and the library. He looked for a couple moments longer before he made his way through the tunnels, following the nightwing's instructions.

He was grateful to see a bed of sand in the room, immediately turning over in it and drying himself off in the dry powder, God he could almost believe he was back home if he closed his eyes.  
"Um, hello?" A quiet voice asked, "You're Pavel, right?"  
He turned over, righting himself. "Yeah, that's… that's me." He said, sizing up the dragon who had entered. He was a seawing, and he was much larger than Pavel. He then noticed the shallow pool on the other side of the room and realised who it was for, "Oh, you're my clawmate right?"  
The seawing nodded, "Yeah, I'm Artyom." Pavel nodded, realising that he wasn't the only one with a strange name here and feeling quite giddy at that, "It's nice to meet you." The other seemed nice enough, and he certainly didn't seem weak or afraid despite his soft voice and that made Pavel suspicious. He couldn't help it, no matter how much he wanted to trust the other. He resolved to get to know him better, so he could eliminate those doubts, "If we're going to be clawmates, we should probably know each other better, right?" He asked.

The other nodded, clearly he only spoke when he needed to.  
"Okay, well, do you have any hobbies?" He asked a little awkwardly, sitting on his sand bed as the other slipped into the small pool.  
"I… enjoy reading, and writing." The other's reply came eventually, "Queen Coral taught me how to when I was younger and I've loved it ever since."  
Pavel sucked in a breath, _Queen Coral? Surely he must be part of the royal family? Oh god, that complicates things. Can I really even trust him? _  
"Oh, you're a royal?" He asked, trying to keep the slight panic out of his voice.  
"No, of course not." He said, "My markings aren't right for that. Princess Anemone suggested that she teach the youngest dragonets how to write like her." Artyom stated this like it was obvious, and Pavel felt a little dumb, "Oh, my apologies." He said hastily.  
"What about you?" Artyom asked, staring at him with curious green eyes, "What hobbies do you have?"  
Maybe this wasn't the best question to start with.  
It's not that Pavel didn't do anything, not at all. It's just that he found it… difficult to say. "Well, I… I like flying." He said, "And I like to look at pretty things." Like you.  
The thought came unbidden to his mind and he immediately quashed it. No thank you.  
"Well, I like making pretty things." He said, and it was the truth. He used to enjoy making jewellery from pieces of wire and shiny things he'd found while hunting the desert, but that felt like lifetimes ago.  
"That sounds fun." Artyom said, "What sort of pretty things do you like to make?"  
"Well, I… I used to make jewellery from junk I found in the desert. Not many other people liked them but I thought they were special…" Why am I sharing so much with him? I barely met him 5 minutes ago.  
The seawing had a thoughtful expression, which made Pavel nervous. Had he said something wrong? __

____

____

His worrying was interrupted by a commotion from outside and they both rushed out to see what was happening, and immediately wished he hadn't.  
There was another nightwing, and a young one by the looks of it… which was A Massive Issue.  
He'd heard, of course, that the nightwings had started getting their powers back now that their eggs were able to hatch under moonlight again and that included mind reading.  
Shit.  
All of his closely guarded secrets could be spilled at any moment, especially if he crossed this one.  
It didn't seem hard to piss her off.  
It turned out that the skywing had been a bit too animated and hit her with his wing and she was near ready to blast him into oblivion.  
"Hey, come on guys." A large mudwing pushed between the two of them, "There's no need to fight, it was an accident."  
The skywing nodded and muttered an apology, while the nightwing just walked past, looking into Pavel's eyes as she did and chilling him to the core.

"Hi!" The mudwing sauntered over to them, "How are you guys? I'm Landslide, what are you guys called?"  
"I'm Pavel." He replied confidently, trying to hide how shaken he was by the nightwing's gaze, "This is Artyom, my clawmate."  
The seawing waved shyly, "I'm impressed with how you handled that."  
"Oh that? Yeah I do it all the time since I'm a bigwings. It's something you learn." He smiled, "I hope we end up in a winglet together, you guys seem really nice." Pavel would have been unnerved by how nice he was, but he was so genuine with how he'd handled the squabbling dragons and sincere in his compliment that he couldn't help but trust him, "Me too, Landslide. You seem like a great guy."

The mudwing trotted down the hallway, talons clicking on the floor as he hummed a tune to himself. They both went back into their room and into their beds, "Did you bring any scrolls?" Pavel asked, "I was just wondering because, well, I wanted to maybe read some of your writing, if that's okay?"  
Artyom looked taken aback and Pavel instantly scolded himself internally, _stupid question, why would anyone just share that with a stranger? _  
"Um, okay, you can see one of them. I have it… here." He pulled it out of a satchel that Pavel hadn't noticed _(what was wrong with him today? He kept missing blatantly obvious things… probably his nerves.) _And handed it to Pavel.  
"Please, be careful." He said as he gingerly opened the scroll, reading the scroll carefully.  
It was… well, he didn't know how to describe it other than letting out a quiet "that's… amazing." He could scarcely believe it, "You're very good at what you do." Pavel said, handing the scroll back and noticing the shy blush on Artyom's cheeks.  
_Cute. _  
_Three moons! Why am I thinking like that? I'm not meant to find dragons from other tribes cute, am I? I mean I guess… there were hybrid dragons, right? So maybe it wasn't as bad as they told him? _  
He shook himself out of that train of thought, it didn't matter if he could love dragons from other tribes or not because he did NOT have a crush on the seawing who he met only half an hour ago. Not in a million years.________

_____ _

_____ _

3 gong strikes rang throughout the mountain, startling them both as they were deep in thought, "We should hurry." Artyom said, "I read on the pamphlet that it means we're needed for our next class… or in this case, it means we're having lunch."  
Pavel was slightly stunned by how much he knew, before he remembered what happened to his own pamphlet.  
_Stupid rain. _  
He followed the seawing, sticking close to him as they went. It wasn't that he was scared of the larger dragons, really. It was just that they had a habit of standing on him. Especially the weak point in his tail.  
Wouldn't surprise me if it turned out they were doing it on purpose. He thought wryly, I don't think these dragons are like that though… I can't really see any of them being malicious.  
The nightwing from earlier approached with her head raised high, casting a glare his way.  
_Except maybe her. _He thought, _Shit, I mean, nothing to see here, please don't read my mind, thank you. _He bowed his head away from her, filling his mind with thoughts of sand and blazing desert sun to shield the rest of his head.  
"Hey! How are you!?" A sudden voice from beside him asked, bright and cheerful.  
"Three moons! You scared the life out of me!" He almost yelled, calming his racing heart, "Who… are you?"______

_____ _

_____ _

He saw the way their scales turned bright gold and blue and realised instantly, "Oh you're a rainwing." He tried to hide the excitement in his voice, "What's your name?"  
"Jewel!" He replied, "Who are you?"  
"Pavel." He said, "It's nice to meet you." He let a genuine smile creep onto his face. He liked Jewel, he seemed nice and overwhelmingly positive. This entire experience was really opening his eyes to how nice other dragons could be.  
_Well, maybe it's just sandwings that are awful… and nightwings. Wait, don't think that, what if she can hear it? Shit. _  
"I'm so excited." Jewel continued, "I wonder who my winglet is gonna be! Oh I'll get to meet an icewing! This is gonna be so much fun."  
The other's enthusiasm was contagious, and he found that it lifted his mood as well.  
"And you're so pretty!" He turned to Artyom now, circling around him, "These glow right?"  
"Yes, we use them to speak to each other underwater." The seawing had a smile on his face, "It's very useful."  
Jewel's exclamation was drowned out as Pavel took the time to really look over his clawmate, and he realised that the rainwing was right. He was pretty, beautiful even. His blue scales shimmered in the light, making him look as though he were covered in sapphires, and a soft gradient of sea-green along his legs, with the top of his body being dark and the bottom light. He'd read somewhere that this was a common thing amongst marine creatures, to camouflage against the sunlight to onlookers below and the seabed from onlookers above. He supposed that his markings had a similar purpose aside from communication  
The spines along his back were a pale turquoise and translucent, almost like his wings, which had a darker translucent membrane on the outside, which would allow light through to camouflage the underside without giving the dragon away.  
There were 2 gong strikes, dragging him out of his thoughts as Jewel said, "Oh! We need to go like, now." He flew off with the other 2 following him quietly. He greeted other dragons as they passed, trying to be polite and hoping that they liked him. He kept his tail curled inward, careful to keep his stinger away from other dragons as they made their way to the prey center.__


End file.
